Perhaps the most consistently awe-inspiring collection yet in a career brimming with emotional epics, Deceptive Cadence is a stunning achievement in modern composition. Over the past decade, William Ryan Fritch has steadily grown and advanced his style, adding influences with each film scoring project while instinctively grafting those sound strains to the sturdy rootstock of his musical soul.
Spanning a gargantuan 45 tracks, Deceptive Cadence represents the current culmination of that immense work. You'd think there might be the odd bit of simple ambient filler amongst all the cues, so fully developed that they are complete statements, regardless of context. But no — each track is an epic in its own right, not in length (there are many between one and three minutes), but in sheer scope and impact. Not a second's time is wasted in these instantly memorable themes.
Even the slower ambient offerings are sculpted with such care put into every detail of the composition, instrumentation, performance, sound design, mix and mastering (all done by Fritch) that they evoke vivid sensations and grip the listener's attention with every heave and swell.
When Fritch lets loose with his glorious string arrangements though, dripping with swooning glissandro and carving bold, heart-stabbing melodies through the stereo field, it's game over — I could die happy listening to this music. And that happens with dumbfounding regularity on this collection.
It's almost impossible to convince that this much profoundly beautiful and utterly distinct music could all come from one person. William Ryan Fritch is one of those special gifts existence occasionally drops on humanity to remind us what the best of us can be capable of, and Deceptive Cadence demonstrates the fruits of this gift with breathtaking clarity.
(Lost Tribe Sound)Spanning a gargantuan 45 tracks, Deceptive Cadence represents the current culmination of that immense work. You'd think there might be the odd bit of simple ambient filler amongst all the cues, so fully developed that they are complete statements, regardless of context. But no — each track is an epic in its own right, not in length (there are many between one and three minutes), but in sheer scope and impact. Not a second's time is wasted in these instantly memorable themes.
Even the slower ambient offerings are sculpted with such care put into every detail of the composition, instrumentation, performance, sound design, mix and mastering (all done by Fritch) that they evoke vivid sensations and grip the listener's attention with every heave and swell.
When Fritch lets loose with his glorious string arrangements though, dripping with swooning glissandro and carving bold, heart-stabbing melodies through the stereo field, it's game over — I could die happy listening to this music. And that happens with dumbfounding regularity on this collection.
It's almost impossible to convince that this much profoundly beautiful and utterly distinct music could all come from one person. William Ryan Fritch is one of those special gifts existence occasionally drops on humanity to remind us what the best of us can be capable of, and Deceptive Cadence demonstrates the fruits of this gift with breathtaking clarity.